Suicides or victims of family violence? Police urge rethink over deaths of three women

The state coroner is being lobbied by Victoria Police and a key family crisis service to reclassify the deaths of three women by suicide this year as being caused by family violence.

The women died as the perpetrators of violence against them were due to be released from custody, including a 25-year-old woman with a six-year-old child. The woman died by suicide on the eve of the discharge of a man who had tried to kill her by strangulation.

Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway spoke on Friday about proposals to register and track high-risk family violence perpetrators.Credit: Justin McManus

Chelsea Tobin, chief executive of crisis service Safe Steps, said the woman – known by the pseudonym Sara for privacy reasons – was “desperately reaching out” to services for help prior to her suicide.

She was fearful of the man’s pending bail release and believed the perpetrator would try again to kill her, Tobin said.

“There was significant trauma for her, and desperation, and she felt unsafe in her own home. The day before his release, Sara completed suicide and left a note as to her fear, saying ‘this is my final act of control’,” she said.

”This is not uncommon. [The women say] if you think you’re going to die, there’s a choice – either let him do it or do it yourself. This is not isolated … there’s numerous [examples] of these in the last year.”

Five women in Victoria have died this year after alleged assaults by men, mostly whom they knew. Nationally, the rate of deaths – which is usually about one woman killed violently a week – has accelerated to one every 4½ days this year.

Tobin has been working behind the scenes for a year with Assistant Commissioner Lauren Callaway of Victoria Police’s family violence command to try to get family violence suicides recognised, to help make this part of the death toll on women visible.

Suicides triggered by family violence were not reflected in statistics around lives lost to the national crisis and including them would better reflect the dimensions of harm, she said.

Tobin said the proportion of women calling Safe Steps seeking urgent help to escape violence who said they were “actively” suicidal had risen 15 per cent in the past six months.

She said 70 per cent of their risk-assessments were “serious risk requiring immediate protection” – the highest risk category, which means they are at risk of death.

Callaway said Victoria Police’s family violence command had recently reviewed a further two cases of women who were suspected of suiciding following extensive histories of family violence.

This was done as part of Victoria Police’s family violence death review process, which usually only manages homicides. The review was expanded to investigate the link between family violence and suicide after Tobin approached police a year ago.

“We’re aware of it now, and have included suicides in our … review process and are going to do it annually: look at the suicide data every year [for family violence links],” Callaway said.

One family violence-suicide case that was examined by police “involved not only a woman but her sister as well”, Callaway said.

“There were two suicides connected to that perpetrator, two young women.”

Callaway said the state government’s Suicide Prevention and Response Strategy – still under development by the Department of Health and “pending” – was examining links between suicide and exposure to family violence.

“That strategy presents a potential future opportunity for developing a multi-agency preventative response, based on subject-matter expertise and lived experience,” Callaway said.

“That’s the body that will lead this work concurrently with the systemic review of family violence deaths that the coroner does.

“When I met with [State Coroner] John Cain, he was interested in this aspect, too. The purpose of our work in coming together is to understand the drivers of suicide and where family violence is obviously a significant factor, and how we can tailor our responses to prevent it happening.”

A Coroner’s Court statement said the court investigated all suspected suicides in Victoria, including family violence-related suicides.

“Family violence-related suicide investigations include cases where the evidence suggests there was a history of family violence, the deceased identified family violence as one of the reasons for the suicide or where a family violence incident occurred proximate to the suicide,” the statement said.

“As part of these investigations, a coroner may request and receive information from various parties, including Victoria Police and Safe Steps, to inform their understanding of the issues relating to the death.”

On Thursday, The Age reported that creating a register of high-risk family violence offenders – which Victoria Police proposed in 2015 as an urgently needed measure –was being proposed as one way to try to reduce the rate at which Victorian women are dying due to family violence, a strategy for which Callaway reiterated her support on Friday.

Premier Jacinta Allan said on Friday that multiple options were being considered by ministers, and she would have more to say in the coming weeks.

“As a government, we do have a responsibility to both lead and act,” Allan said. “There’s also a responsibility on all of us, in our everyday life, to call out when women aren’t being respected. To say it’s unacceptable. By calling out bad behaviour, it might save a life.“

Tobin said to help prevent suicide of family violence victim-survivors it was important that women realised they could be helped to get to a safe place immediately, any time, by calling Safe Steps.

Many end up in hotels or motels, but Tobin said there were pilot wraparound services from which 96 per cent of women exited safely into a fresh start, compared with 50 per cent of those who went to hotels.

“In motels, you’re left alone with four walls and your thoughts,” she said.

Callaway said Victoria Police’s family violence command had worked with the coroner to identify all Victorian suicides with a history of family violence reported to police in a 12-month period.

“Family violence command knows that exposure to family violence is a contributing risk factor for suicide,” she said. “[It] continues to support coronial investigations with a view to suicide prevention.”

If you or someone you know is in need of support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Safe Steps. In the event of an emergency dial triple zero (000). Support is also available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).